Evaluation of the impact of addition of PET to CT and MR scanning in the staging of patients with head and neck carcinomas.

The addition of whole body positron emission tomography (PET) to the investigation of patients with newly diagnosed head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) was assessed over a 6-month period. Staging investigations included laryngoscopy, oesophagoscopy, CXR, CT and MRI. In addition, all patients had an extended-field (whole body) FDG-PET scan and were restaged.